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InvinciBill (5)
Project: Comic
Known as: InvinciBill
Real name: William Gazer
Group affiliation: MizFits
Physical description: Bill is quite tall (6’4″), very thin, and not athletic. He has dark skin and is professor in his fifties and looks the part: tweed jackets, receding salt-and-pepper hair, and round eye glasses.
History: Bill was born to two successful Boston attorneys and has never wanted for much in his life (at least financially). This enabled him to pursue his many intellectual interests and gifts. Bill was a prodigy and minor celebrity. A Mensa member at age 3, concert cellist at age 6, a national spelling bee champion his paintings were exhibited in a major gallery by age 10. He was the most gifted person of his generation, and his parents had the means and supportive attitude to try to help him reach his full potential.
Of course, there are trade-offs in life. It was pointless to send Bill to public or even esteemed private schools. He was home-schooled by a series of private tutors (many of whom ended up learning quite a bit from Bill) and was attending college courses by his teen years. This meant he rarely interacted with his age peers and when he did he had trouble connecting with them. He was not athletically gifted and rarely could find time for such pursuits even if he had been interested. While admired by many for his abilities there was also jealousy and resentment (turns out not every Harvard professor enjoys being corrected by a 15-year-old) compounded by being a person of color.
Despite having a small group of nontraditional friends, Bill has lived an amazing life as a professional student. He has earned several formal degrees along the way but tended to follow his passions (it did not trouble him to leave courses mid-semester if the right opportunity presented itself). He has had jobs as a teacher or professor several times but was uninterested in career. His interests never tended towards the applied engineering, business and the like (in truth, he was a tad squeamish about biology, medicine and the like). Rather, he was most at home in the humanities.
Those who don’t understand him find Bill to be aloof and inscrutable (due to his limited social skills and general tendency to operate at a higher level). In reality, he is a beautiful soul. He is enamored of the human mind, and the beauty it can produce. He is happiest when he gets a new perspective, experiences new art, or is impressed by another’s thinking. Despite not always being treated the best by other people, he believes in humanity and its potential (this is key in our main Mizfits romance more on that tomorrow).
Bill was thrown for a loop when the “All Saints’ Anarchy” event gave him the power of invulnerability. He feels a responsibility to help the Mizfits with this ability, but it constantly puts him in situations where he does not feel confident that he knows what to do (an unusual sensation for him). Also his power leads him to have to behave in undignified ways (e.g., throwing himself in the gears to stop a machine). Finally, he has the same reflexes as the rest of us, so despite being immune from harm he flinches and covers his head like any of us would.
Don’t mistake any of his hesitancy in some situations for cowardice; after all, he consistently puts himself in situations where he is very uncomfortable.
Role in the narrative: The duality theme of the Mizfits shows itself again: a complete intellectual gets a physical power. Just gives a great opportunity for a character to get new perspectives.
On a team with many intelligent characters (e.g., Nudge and Random are in the genius range; Boost and Puzzle have outstanding if narrow intellectual capabilities), Bill is next-level smart. He could go toe-to-toe with most humanities professors on the planet, with only the most exceptional being able to exceed him (even then, if he dedicated himself to a single topic, he could become a world expert in short order). Music, Art, Literature, History, Philosophy, Religion, Anthropology he either literally or functionally has PhDs in each.
Narratively he’s useful to drop in literary quotes, and if the plot ever backs one in the corner Bill could come up with something. I love smart characters (even though they are hard to write being smarter than I am). Plus, I think he’ll be good for the team. Random, despite him being so traditional, really admires Bill (he’s read more books than she has). So does Nudge (and the sisters get along better when he is around). And, we’ll meet his love interest tomorrow.
Abilities: Bill cannot be harmed in any way. Impact, heat, cold, gasses, etc. simply cannot damage him. He has no need to eat any longer, and only sleeps if he wants to. Note he is not super strong, nor dense. If he gets hit by a wrecking ball, it will send him flying, and he might flip over a few times, but he will be unharmed. He also doesn’t feel pain (his tactile sense “turns off” beyond a certain level of stimulation). His power is a complete mystery, as a medical examination reveals nothing unusual about him. Still he is unbreakable (in the above “gears” situation, the metal of the gears would give way before Bill’s flesh did).
Inspirations: It seems there are plenty of people named “Bill” on the internet who already use this as a nickname (including a cancer fighter big props to a real hero). However, likely the name was inspired by Kirkman (who both writes “Invincible” and uses names like “Dupli-kate”). Plenty of invulnerable characters abound (many of you may have thought about Unbreakable), but I’ll give a nod to Diamond Lil from Alpha Flight as a more obscure one (Byrne essentially reused the concept in Next Men).
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